WADA hasn't notified FIFA about Russian national team's ban on competing in 2022 World Cup
MOSCOW. Feb 5 (Interfax) - The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has not received notifications from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that the Russian national team would not be able to take part in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the FIFA press service told Interfax.
"We do not have new information as compared to what we provided in December 2019," the press service said.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Arab television channel BeIN Sports said citing WADA that the agency had notified Russia that its national team could not compete in the 2020 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
The Russian Football Union, like FIFA, said it had not received any notification from WADA.
FIFA said in December that it was taking into consideration the decision of the WADA Executive Committee on sanctions against the Russian Anti-Doping Agency over manipulations with doping samples in its Moscow lab.
The WADA Executive Committee decided on December 9, 2019, to deprive RUSADA of its compliance status for manipulating data from the Moscow Anti-Doping Lab. The decision means that Russian athletes will not be able to compete internationally for four years. Russia will not be able to nominate its athletes to compete in the Olympic Games, world championships, or other major tournaments, nor will it be allowed to host major international competitions during this time. At the same time, Russian athletes with no history of doping will have a chance to compete in the Olympic Games as neutral athletes, with the Russian flag and Russian anthem banned at official competitions.
On December 19, the RUSADA Supervisory Board recommended that the agency's General Assembly refuse to accept the decision made by the WADA Executive Committee. The RUSADA General Assembly adopted the recommendation on December 24. RUSADA head Yury Ganus was ordered to send WADA a notice concerning disagreement with the sanctions on December 27. The relevant notice was sent to WADA.
RUSADA will thus contest the decision made by the WADA Executive Committee in the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport. The Swiss law firm Schellenberg Wittmer will represent the Russian agency.